How to Really Make Some Noise

If you’ve participated in one of the last five Altador Cups, you are most likely familiar with a game called MSN, a.k.a. Make Some Noise. Many people shy away from playing it, as it is very complicated and the controls take quite a while to get used to, even though it can be played multiple times rapidly to greatly help your team out. If you are one of those people, then this is the article for you! If not, I still encourage you to stick around; you might not know as much about the game as you think.

Once you start the game, you are confronted with multiple cheering faces, two keyboard keys in the bottom-left of the screen, and what seems to be a multi-colored protractor in the lower-right corner of the screen. Let’s take this one step at a time, shall we?

First, the faces. Although you initially only see a Shoyru, Kyrii, Blumaroo, Quiggle, Techo, Skeith and a portion of what seems to be a Gelert, more faces will eventually appear, but most of them are not important. By now you may have noticed that the Techo is wearing your team’s jersey, and this is in fact not a coincidence. He is the only neopet of the bunch who interests you, as you are only controlling him.

Now, the keys. The keys are randomized to a certain degree, but you can rather often get combinations such as MQ, TY, KI and so forth, which of course stand for the various teams in the Altador Cup e.g., Maraqua, Tyrannia and Krawk Island. The game is played by alternating tapping these keys as quickly as you possibly can. The first key controls the high-pitch sounds in your cheer, while the second key controls the low-pitch sounds. The result is that your scream constantly goes from high to low pitch, and for that reason does not blend in with the crowd and is always audible. The reason this is important is that if your team can hear someone cheer for them over the noise of the Colosseum, they will be invigorated and will play better, while the opposing team will be demoralized by your cheer. Of course, such a combination results in more goals for your team, which is your true objective in this game.

Finally, the protractor-esque thing. It is a meter of how audible your cheer is in comparison to the background noise of the other fans. It has an arrow which starts pointing left. It is also right under the yellow segment of the meter, also called the “Quiet Whisper” segment. At this part of the game, the Techo quietly cheers for his team with twitching eyes, but doesn’t do much more.

When, after a bit of key-mashing, you reach 50 points, you should progress to the gold segment, also known as the “Casual Conversation” segment. At this point the neopets sitting next to you can barely start to hear you. This is also accompanied by your view zooming out. The Techo starts to make audible sounds and shakes his fists during the gold segment.

Once you tap a bit more and get 300 points, you reach the orange, or “Loud Yell” segment. This is when the neopets around you can really start to hear you, and your view zooms out again, indicating that your cheer can be heard by more people. At this point the Techo is yelling and shaking his fists rather intensely.

By the time you get to 800 points, your fingers are most likely starting to ache because of all the tapping, but if you do manage it, you will move on to the dark orange segment. This segment is called the “Megaphone” segment. For the duration of the “Megaphone” segment, the Techo is screaming his lungs out, shaking his fists dangerously close to other neopets’ faces and bulging his eyes out. At this point, your cheer is just barely loud enough for your team to hear over all the commotion, but it still strengthens their morale to the point where they can start to score goals. When your team scores a goal, a key appears at the top of the screen. Tapping the key once activates a quick “timed cheer” which, despite not making your cheer louder, further strengthens your team. Although it is not necessary to do a “timed cheer”, it is highly recommended since your final score depends on how much you lifted your team’s spirits.

If your fingers do not fall off by the 1500 point mark, you will advance to the final and loudest red segment, dubbed the “OMG MY EARS” segment. Reaching it means that your cheer is now heard all over the Colosseum and your team is now playing at its best, since the Techo is now screaming to the very best of his ability and doing a little dance, his fists miraculously avoiding other pets. In fact, if your team has not scored a goal by the time you reach the red segment, the loudness of your cheer will most likely momentarily stun the opposing team, giving your team a quick goal, so when you get to the red segment, be prepared to do a “timed cheer” if you want to get a high score. At this point it takes quite a bit of tapping to make your scream louder and move the arrow forward even slightly, but when your team hears that the insanely loud cheer is only getting more powerful, they will start playing exponentially better.

When you reach 3000 points, you have a choice. You can either press the Space Bar to end the game and send your score, which will give your team points in the Altador Cup and will also bring you closer to ranking up, or you can continue playing to make sure that your team is constantly playing at its finest.

After a total of 30 seconds, the Techo’s drive runs out, the game ends and your score is tallied. If at the end of the game you have a score of less that 3000 points, it is recommended that you do not send your score as it does not count towards your rank.

And that is all there is to Making Some Noise! Hopefully this guide will make the game more approachable for people, and perhaps even give those who have already figured the game out on their own some further insight into the game!